By Victoria Hurley-Schubert
Harrison Street Park was the topic of lengthy discussion at Tuesday night’s Borough Council meeting.
An overview of the project was given by Borough Engineer Chris Budzinski, who said a surplus of $5,835 remains from the project budget of $485,500. To date, costs are $479,665. A punch list is being compiled from the engineer’s office and park neighbors for Edgewater Design LLC, the developer.
Dead or dying plants will be addressed by Edgewater under a one-year warranty that went into effect on July 1.
”The Borough Council recommended to Chris Budzinski that we wait to do the majority of the plant material replacement until the spring,” said Robert W. Bruschi, the borough administrator. “We will be following up with the contractor on that. Within the next month the contractor will be posting his maintenance bond which will go through July of 2011.”
A request made by a resident to change the color of the basketball court was denied by the council, who all agreed to “use the park and see how it wears.”
For park maintenance several ideas were discussed, but no solution was reached. Councilwoman Barbara Trelstad suggested looking into the possibility of hiring a summer intern to help with the maintenance of all the borough parks.
Councilman Roger Martindell presented the idea of using some of the leftover money from the construction budget to purchase maintenance equipment such as hoses for watering.
The Public Works Committee will review the suggestions and make recommendations.
”We will discuss the concept of hiring a garden intern, talk about the job description for such a person and talk about possible sources for funding of an intern if we agree that it is a good idea to go forward with hiring such a person,” said Ms. Trelstad. “We will talk about maintenance plans for Harrison Street Park and all parks we will compare the maintenance plans that we have received from Edgewater Design and from Barbara Bromley, the Mercer County horticulturist.”
The committee will also talk about continuing to develop “Friends of the Park Guidelines” that would pertain to all borough parks and would assist in establishing a hierarchy of who is in charge and who can do what in the parks, so when questions arise as to maintenance, they can be directed to the right place.
”I am sure this will be the first of several meetings and discussions that will be held to set a plan in place for maintenance of not just Harrison Street Park but all of the borough parks,” added Ms. Trelstad.
The Public Works Committee meets at noon on Thursday, Sept. 16, in the West Conference Room of Borough Hall.
